The Common Core?

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2014 at 4:09 PM

In another thread, we drifted briefly into the topic of education policy, which got me thinking again about the Common Core standards.

Federal education policy has been an interesting issue to watch. Traditionally – or at least for the last 25 years – Republicans have favored standardized testing and charter schools, while Democrats have favored closing the racial “achievement gap,” more educational support for disadvantaged communities and more federal involvement in education, but dislike tests.

George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy bridged the divide with No Child Left Behind. Bush got expansion of standardized testing, but states got to design the tests and decide what constituted a passing score. Kennedy got requirements that the performance of disadvantaged students be tracked separately, and that the scores of all student sub-groups be counted in determining whether schools were succeeding or failing, along with promises – subsequently broken – of increased federal school aid.

Along comes Obama, with an education reform agenda that also straddles traditional camps and (thanks to the Stimulus) the money to entice states to adopt it, thus avoiding the need to steer an education bill through Congress. Race to the Top has things Republicans have traditionally supported: standardized tests, expansion of charter schools, meaningful teacher evaluation that includes measures of student performance. And it has things Democrats like: more federal school aid. Plus it encouraged states to create a “Common Core” of education standards, created by committees of state education officials, and a national standardized testing regime, so that a high school diploma certifies a level of educational attainment no matter what state it was earned in. Large corporations like that, as do many education reformers focused on how U.S. students compare to their counterparts overseas.

Now, both states-rights conservatives and pro-union liberals are turning against the Common Core. I still lean in favor, on general terms: I think tests are part of education and are fine as long as they are testing the things that should be taught and teachers are still expected to teach and evaluate students on skills that are equally important, but difficult to test (arts, comportment, teamwork, etc). I get irritated at teachers – especially in the early grades – who complain about “stress” on students from MCAS testing. The test is purely diagnostic up until 11th grade, and kids should no more be stressed about taking the MCAS than they are stressed over going to the pediatrician for an annual physical. I think improving teacher evaluation is critical, but student test scores should be diagnostic there as well, because if you make the tests “high stakes,” some teachers will either push test prep too hard or they’ll cheat.

As with health care reform, Massachusetts has been here before. We went to standards-based testing in 1992. Mass. education officials had an outsized voice in creating the Common Core standards. New York is fighting hard over the Common Core now, with parents and teachers unions especially critical. The New York Times reported on this recently, saying the state education commissioner “staunchly defended the effort, saying Massachusetts went through the same pains two decades ago after it adopted new standards, and now consistently scores as high as the top countries do on international measures.”

What do you think?

Rick Holmes

In another thread, we drifted briefly into the topic of education policy, which got me thinking again about the Common Core standards.

Federal education policy has been an interesting issue to watch. Traditionally – or at least for the last 25 years – Republicans have favored standardized testing and charter schools, while Democrats have favored closing the racial “achievement gap,” more educational support for disadvantaged communities and more federal involvement in education, but dislike tests.

George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy bridged the divide with No Child Left Behind. Bush got expansion of standardized testing, but states got to design the tests and decide what constituted a passing score. Kennedy got requirements that the performance of disadvantaged students be tracked separately, and that the scores of all student sub-groups be counted in determining whether schools were succeeding or failing, along with promises – subsequently broken – of increased federal school aid.

Along comes Obama, with an education reform agenda that also straddles traditional camps and (thanks to the Stimulus) the money to entice states to adopt it, thus avoiding the need to steer an education bill through Congress. Race to the Top has things Republicans have traditionally supported: standardized tests, expansion of charter schools, meaningful teacher evaluation that includes measures of student performance. And it has things Democrats like: more federal school aid. Plus it encouraged states to create a “Common Core” of education standards, created by committees of state education officials, and a national standardized testing regime, so that a high school diploma certifies a level of educational attainment no matter what state it was earned in. Large corporations like that, as do many education reformers focused on how U.S. students compare to their counterparts overseas.

Now, both states-rights conservatives and pro-union liberals are turning against the Common Core. I still lean in favor, on general terms: I think tests are part of education and are fine as long as they are testing the things that should be taught and teachers are still expected to teach and evaluate students on skills that are equally important, but difficult to test (arts, comportment, teamwork, etc). I get irritated at teachers – especially in the early grades – who complain about “stress” on students from MCAS testing. The test is purely diagnostic up until 11th grade, and kids should no more be stressed about taking the MCAS than they are stressed over going to the pediatrician for an annual physical. I think improving teacher evaluation is critical, but student test scores should be diagnostic there as well, because if you make the tests “high stakes,” some teachers will either push test prep too hard or they’ll cheat.

As with health care reform, Massachusetts has been here before. We went to standards-based testing in 1992. Mass. education officials had an outsized voice in creating the Common Core standards. New York is fighting hard over the Common Core now, with parents and teachers unions especially critical. The New York Times reported on this recently, saying the state education commissioner “staunchly defended the effort, saying Massachusetts went through the same pains two decades ago after it adopted new standards, and now consistently scores as high as the top countries do on international measures.”

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